Human Resources I

Maureen W. McClure

School of Education

Department of Administrative and Policy Studies

University of Pittsburgh

FALL 1999

TIME:

Tuesday, 4:30-7:10 p.m.

PLACE:

5P57 Forbes Quad

OFFICE:

5K38 Forbes Quad

phone: 1.412.648.7114

fax: 1.412.624.2609

HOURS:

1-4 Tuesdays (and by appt), 1-4 Wednesdays

This syllabus is updated throughout the term.

Tomorrow's administrators need to learn much more than 'how to do' HR. They need to know how to think about HR in complex ways. They need to know both how to keep up with the knowledge explosion in the field, and how to integrate their learning with their experience in highly complex, unique and often fluid settings.

This seminar introduces students to the issues of contemporary personnel management within the complex contexts of schools. It compares and contrasts institutional management and professional governance approaches to education in market economies and democratic communities. It explores the tensions created by these differing viewpoints and their impact on schools. It focuses on district management with special emphases on site-based management and sectoral networks within a region.

It emphasizes collegial learning and meta-concepts. Collegial learning draws on the professional experiences of students in the classroom. Most students in the course will bring to class rich experience, craft knowledge and access to the field. They are shared and analyzed in class.

Meta-concepts in HR are concepts that are more comprehensive than more concrete ones and are used to frame and analyze complex information systems. For example, 'benefits' is a meta-concept that covers health and life insurance, pensions, tuition and other non-salary compensation packages.

Meta-concepts are increasingly needed because educational administrators face exploding knowledge and the need to 'situate' it in increasingly complex contexts. Human resources management has exploded into an entire major in other professional schools. Textbooks written as recently as five years ago often do not account for critical knowledge about information systems, security, ergonomics and corruption, for example.

The class centers on a project to design a meta-plan for HR at a site/institutional level. Personnel planning has become so complex, that it can be useful to create a 'plan to plan.' A meta-plan serves as a 'map' for personnel planning that is coherently linked to strategic plans, budgets and curricula.

Students will work individually and in small groups to identify, map and prioritize planning topics, indicators and expected consequences.

The Professional Governance Project:

Other materials will be posted throughout the course.

Review chapters and prepare documents.

Prepare to teach a class from one of three points of view: technical systems, policy and compliance, and political cultures.

TBA.

Classes